


Sharp Teeth

by SoftboySigma



Category: Polygon/McElroy Vlogs & Podcasts RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood, Blood Drinking, Dissociation, Human/Vampire Relationship, M/M, Mild Language, Vampire Bites, Vampires, shipboys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-08-20 17:54:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16560488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoftboySigma/pseuds/SoftboySigma
Summary: Griffin works the night shift and just wants to get some food and go home. So does Nick.





	Sharp Teeth

**Author's Note:**

> Aaahhh, I meant to post this on Halloween but got distracted with Deltarune and some other real life stuff. But! It’s here now. -w-
> 
> Not sure how long of a series this will be, if it’ll be one at all, but we’ll see! I'll adjust the tags and whatnot as this takes more of a solid form.

The night was cold and metallic, the howling wind having long since turned its service over to the moon. It ripped and tore through vacant lots, making each breath within a battle of wills, a fight to simply get air in the lungs and ignore the heaviness that stuck in the roof of the mouth. To filter out the secrets it seemed to be screaming to share. Because if you focused on the taste, you could almost make out distinct flavors. The tang of exhaust, the grain dust of concrete, the crispness of dew. A strange sort of kiss that could only be shared under the cover of fluorescent lighting. Griffin licked his lips, eager to move on.

Late shifts were always miserable, and tonight was no exception. He was tired, his eyes hurt, and his mind couldn’t reconcile that the world around him was entirely real.

It wasn’t as bad during his usual hours. Long as they were, it helped to be able to catch the last colors of the sunset, present for the sun’s transition into night. But these late shifts? To miss that altogether? It felt like being plucked from another universe entirely. Like somehow the witching hour still had enough magic left to fuck with Griffin’s head specifically.

It wouldn’t do any good to complain, though. He learned that lesson a while ago. Instead, it was better to just get food and head home as soon as possible. If he kept his head down, he could ignore the yawning presence of the cold night wind. And so, that was exactly what he was aiming to do. Another miserable late shift, another miserable run to Taco Bell and home. It shouldn’t have been any different this time.

Griffin made his usual route, pulling his car into the side of the Taco Bell parking lot, away from the inevitably tipsy drivers swerving in and out of the drive through. The curb’s decorative bushes, neglected as ever, grazed his arms as he opened his car door. Annoying, but there really wasn’t anywhere else he could park and still stay out of the way.

Inside, he ordered his usual burrito, glossing through the motions and shielding his eyes from the harsh lighting until his bag was ready. A quick check to make sure it was correct, a nod and a smile, and a fast pace out the door. He was almost done. He could almost go home.

So when he stepped with his back against the bushes to get back into his car, he never noticed that he wasn’t alone.

Hands slammed into his shoulders and pulled him back with staggering force, knocking his feet clear out from under him. He hit the pavement hard, gasping, stunned, too dumb to even scream. Hot breath grazed behind Griffin’s ear and. His world… iced. Was that really…?

Searing pain shut that down in an instant. A horrible, piercing pain in his neck that morphed from warm to absolutely burning in the blink of an eye, as if his blood itself was being lit like gasoline. It was not natural, and his mind knew this. Finally, he woke up.

Griffin scrambled at the ground in front of him, tearing up his palms to fight desperately against the hands wrapped around his chest, holding him close to what now registered as another body. A person? He could fight a person. Inhaling, he kicked his legs forward, launching off the side of his car and into his assailant, toppling the both of them into the dirt with a loud thud. There was a grunt from below and Griffin felt the grip around him loosen, with just enough of a window for him to wrench himself forward and run like hell.

“Wait, stop!”

Griffin didn’t bother to listen. He was panicked and scared and everything burned. Not just his neck, which was now slick and making his shirt stick to his shoulder, but everything. Like his whole body was being infected with that gas fire, curling deeper and deeper with every action he took. Running made the muscles in his legs feel heavier each time his feet hit the pavement. Breathing made his lungs feel like they were filling with anything but air. Even his thoughts felt like they were nothing more than embers, dissolving away into nothingness as the fire consumed. 

It was just, so hard to hold onto anything. Desperately, Griffin careened away from the open space of the parking lot and into the small shops that lined the edges of the marketplace. He’d never been here before specifically, but he’d seen it enough times to know there was some sort of back alley he could slip through to hide. If he wasn’t going to make it by running, he could at least hide. 

To his relief, there seemed to be a weird little loading bay around the back of the buildings. Rows of semi-trucks greeted him like guardian angels, and he dove between them until he found one nestled completely in the dark. Griffin fell to his knees, wheezing. It wasn’t far enough. This wasn’t far enough. He just had to hope he’d been quick enough to shake whoever the fuck just attacked him. 

Which, God. What even happened to him? What... was that? He reached up to touch his shoulder experimentally, dismayed to find it almost completely numb aside from the heat. Pressing around the wound produced nothing, no pain. His hands were shaking too, but he didn’t know why. It was like he wasn’t allowed to feel for himself anymore. Whatever was in his blood was doing the feeling and all it felt was burning and that was just how it was now. 

Griffin put his head in his hands. Of all the ways he’d imagined dying, there was never a scenario like this. He’d always hoped it would happen at home, or at least happen fast so he didn’t have to struggle against the dead weight of his own body. And, oh, God, he was going to ruin some poor trucker’s morning tomorrow, wasn’t he? There was going to be... paperwork? For him? He pulled his hands away, trying to look at his fingers. They weren’t there. Oh, fuck. 

“Hey...” A voice called softly from a few paces away. Griffin pulled his eyes upward, barely recognizing a blurry figure approaching. It had to be whoever attacked him. It had to be, right? There was no way he was going to be able to outrun them again, not in... whatever the fuck condition he was in. 

“Please, please stop,” the voice said again. “I know you have no reason to trust me, but you need to stop and let me help you.”

“I have… like a negative reason to trust you.” Griffin blinked hard, trying to push away his haze. “Like, the opposite of a reason.”

“I know, I know, just, please listen to me. You’ve got… poison in you. Right? And I can get it out, but you’ve got to let me do it or you’re going to end up very sick for the rest of your life.”

He smiled sarcastically. “Then why’d you put it there in the first place?”

“…I didn’t want to. It’s just part of the…” There was the sound of dirt crunching under unsure feet. “Process.”

“What– what. What the fuck does that mean? If you really wanna help me, can you just explain what the fuck is going on? I am literally losing my ability to see and I’m already half blind to begin with.”

A pause. “I’m… My name is Nick. And… I’m a vampire, I guess. And, there’s this whole thing with our bites where we’ve got like… a venom for the initial bite that turns people, but then like an anti-venom for the drinking that keeps you human and actually like, heals the scars and shit.” He kneeled down to be at level with Griffin on the ground. “Look, I don’t know exactly how it works. I’m, uh. New at this. But I really don’t want to make you a vampire if we can avoid it so can I please just finish up and let you go home? Please.”

Griffin put his head in his hands again. This was stupid. This was so fucking stupid. Vampires? Really? There was no way this guy was telling the fucking truth. 

But he also felt his nerves pulsing with each heartbeat, and figured he didn’t have many more left in him anyway. “…Alright. Okay. Whatever, do whatever you need to do, fix me, get it over with.”

“Here, uh,” he felt Nick scoot his hands under his arms to push him back and lean him against a wall. Unfortunately, his head rolled awkwardly and an uncomfortable fuzz filled his mind. He completely forgot-- he reached out to touch the person’s chest in front of him, trying to figure out why he was afraid of him. A corrective slap to his cheeks reminded him pretty fast. Oh, yeah.“…Hey, stay with me. What’s your name, by the way?”

“Griffin.”

“Hi, Griffin. I’m going to, uhm. Put uh, my mouth on your neck. You might get a little lightheaded but you should be just fine, alright?”

“Yeah… Yeah, okay.” Griffin sighed. This was dumb. This, he hated this. Sapped of energy and bleeding into the concrete, he almost wished he’d just told this asshole to fuck off and let him die. But when Nick held the back of his head and dipped into his neck, a strange serenity washed over him. For the first time in a while, he felt… safe. Like the world wasn’t so ethereal, or like his existence through it wasn’t so fleeting. As if there were no more secrets hiding in the wind or the moon, trying to convince him he wasn’t real. He simply was. He was real, he was solid, and he was safe.

His burning was already subsiding. And yes, he was a little lightheaded. But it was okay. It wasn’t foggy, just breezy. Instinctively, Griffin reached his arms under Nick’s to hold onto his shoulders, tilting his head away as he did. He felt Nick’s lips leave his skin, a glance to make sure he wasn’t passing out, probably, and his return with his tongue pressed flat to soothe. Griffin choked on a moan high in his throat, failing to catch it even a little bit.

“O-Oh, uhh,” Nick jumped back and quickly peeled Griffin off of him. “Uhm, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to, uhm– mean to make you do that.”

“Hm? Oh, no, that was my fault. I’m… very dizzy.”

“Shit, really? Uhm. It’s, it’s normal to be dizzy and it’s also normal to be dizzy for a while afterwards, but I guess you did just run with a whole… situation. And that didn’t help.”

Griffin wasn’t really listening. It was clear Nick was mostly talking to himself anyway. “Mhm. Hey, who do I call if this gets infected?” He pointed lazily to his shoulder. “They have vampire doctors?”

“Yes. Well– no, not for you. For me. If you have any issues I think you just have to call… Uh, me, I guess.” Nick fumbled for his pockets, pulling a phone out and promptly swiping it awake. “Hand me yours?”

He obliged, sitting back and watching Nick’s face in the light of the screens. Funny, now that he could see, how his mouth didn’t seem to be a mess. A little red in the corners, but for a beginner he seemed to know how to keep himself clean. Griffin wondered if this guy was just a neat freak or if he had more experience than he let on. Perhaps more interesting though was the hearty pink painted across his cheeks, framed by the delicate curls of his fringe, and he found it charming that even vampires could still blush and embarrass.

God, was he already at terms with it? He just called him a vampire without a hint of irony. Griffin pushed up his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. He needed to… say something. Or, anything.

“Hey, uh,” he started, “I am… really sorry about the noise I made, I know that’s weird. I think, uhh. Well, actually, I used to have this partner and she was kinda into–”

“Wh– draining you of blood in the bedroom?”

“No! No, nothing like that! Just, y'know, uh. Ta-Taking care of me. Keeping the, uhm, choices out of my hands. And I guess I wasn’t really thinking and you reminded me of that, and… Holy shit, I need to shut up.”

Nick laughed, gently handing Griffin’s phone back to him. “No, it’s, really, it’s okay. I know you’ve had… a long night. And to be honest, that’s not even the horniest thing that’s happened to me while feeding.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah! I had this one guy that, I think he knew I was coming? Because he was standing in the dark and I grabbed him and then like… he grabbed me. Like behind my knee? I didn’t even bite him yet.”

“Oh my God. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I fucked off pretty fast, I just wasn’t expecting it! I had no idea people wanted to be bitten so bad!”

Griffin smiled and hid his face in his hands. “Jesus, still, that’s awful.”

“You’re one to talk.”

“Yeah, I… yeah, I need to go home, don’t I?”

“You do.” Nick pushed himself up, offering his hand to Griffin and heaving him up after. “It’s actually good you ordered food. It’ll help you sober up before you drive, and, probably make it easier when you clean up to not be running on fumes.”

“Oh… This shirt is ruined.” Griffin looked down at the sleeves of his button up. “Wow, it’s… wow, I’m a bleeder.”

“Again, not your fault.” Nick smiled softly, adjusting Griffin’s collar so it was straightened out. A useless gesture, as there was no making a literal bloody mess anymore presentable, but it was thoughtful nonetheless. Quietly, he took Griffin’s elbow and started walking him towards his car. “Just, get your rest, okay? And call me if anything feels wrong or you get sick or whatever. I’ll come to help as soon as I can.”

Griffin looked at his shoes, listening to the sounds of the city in silence for a moment. “…Thanks for not killing me tonight.”

Nick tilted his head. “Yeah, I. Yeah, no problem. I don’t, uhm, really want to kill anyone,” he laughed, the pace of his footsteps almost imperceptibly shaken. Almost. “Sorry for biting you.”

“It’s okay.” Griffin took a deep breath. His car was just as he’d left it. Door open, lights on, bag on the floor. “…No, it’s not okay. But I don’t care. You’ve been nice to me, and I think I needed that.”

“Of course. Uhm, take care of yourself, alright, Griffin?”

“I will. You too, Nick. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

Griffin closed the door. The moon was still shining. The wind was still howling. It didn’t feel the same.


End file.
